The present application is directed to digital lithography, and more particularly to improving the tuning and resolution of the same.
With existing commercial digital printers, a design pattern is laid out on a grid, and each grid point designated by the design is then covered with material from the digital printers. The printed material administered from the digital printers is deposited on the desired surface in the form of drops at each grid point. This procedure does not take into account the importance of gap spacing and edge smoothness, two parameters important when printing electronics, especially for interconnect printing. For example, a typical digital printer prints narrow gaps by increasing the grid resolution and increasing the number of drops of dispensing. When printing electronics in this manner, the added drops required to increase printing resolution can lead to bridged gaps between the printed lines, causing undesired electrical short circuits. Further, certain types of deposited drops are known to exhibit scalloped patterns at the edge of an intended smooth edge printed line. Other printing conditions of an intended smooth edge continuous line can result in linewidth bulging and/or break up along with coalescing with close neighboring lines that already exist, a natural result of the affinity of the printed material to be joined with itself or hydrophilic surfaces.
The present application is concerned with improvements in the existing printing systems and operations.